Influence of different measuring procedures of head-related transfer functions on auditory perception

Head-related transfer functions(HRTFs) are the core of virtual auditory display. However, a standard procedure in HRTF measurements hasn't been established. This work investigates the influence of different measuring procedures of HRTF on auditory perception. Firstly, the diffusion-field equalization was proposed as a pre-processing method, and applied to HRTFs of a single dummy head KEMAR from five different databases. Then, the spectral deviations among the HRTFs were calculated. Finally, a series of subjective listening experiments(including localization and discrimination experiments) were conducted.Resultsindicate the diffusion-field equalization is an effective preprocessing method which can reduce the influence of difference measuring procedures on HRTF's magnitude spectra;moreover, the different measuring procedures of HRTFs have little influence on localization below 12 kHz but obvious influence on timbre, which may lead to audible discrimination.